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Ohio: Denis Smith on Charter School Governance: Part 2: Who “Owns” Charter Schools?

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2014 //
27

Denis Smith is a retired school administrator who worked both as a sponsor representative for charter schools as well as a consultant in the state charter school office. In this five-part series, he offers his perspective about charter school governance and how this mechanism designed to provide transparency and accountability for public entities is sorely lacking and may in fact be the “fatal design flaw” of these schools.

Part Two

In September 2008, Dennis Bakke, the founder and CEO of Imagine Schools, one of the nation’s largest charter school chains, wrote a lengthy internal memo to his company’s regional directors that contained his candid views on the role and function for the governing boards of “our” schools, as he described the Imagine brand. The memo, which became widely known a year after it was sent by email to his key contacts within the company he founded along with his wife, Eileen, is quite revealing and offers a snapshot about how executives of private national charter school chains want absolute control of the “public” schools they operate. Due to its length, the memo is condensed within the following passage.

What are we learning about the selection and care of board members for our schools? Most Board members become very involved in the life of the school. Often, even before the school begins operation, the Board members have taken “ownership” of the school. Many honestly believe it is their school and that the school will not go well without them steering the school toward “excellence”. They believe they are the “governing” Board even if that adjective to describe the board has never been used by an Imagine School person. Many become involved in the daily life of the school, volunteering and “helping” teachers and other staff to get things done. Even those who are not parents, take “ownership” of the school as if they started it… [The board members] didn’t finance the start up of the school or the building. They didn’t find the principal or any of the teachers and staff. They didn’t design the curriculum. In some cases, they did help recruit students.

The complete text of this revealing memo is found at this link: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091102/LOCAL10/911029966/1216/LOCAL1006

Bakke’s memo is important because it mirrors the thinking of national charter school chains as well as those who are managed by smaller for-profit management companies which may operate within a state or a regional basis. All control and direction for the school comes on high from corporate, and such constructs as school governing boards and local governance amount to distractions. Clearly, local control is an oxymoron to the Dennis Bakkes of the charter school industry.

The memo also makes it clear that no autonomy is expected of the boards which are chosen mostly by the company’s regional managers. While the best of our nation’s schools usually feature a collaborative model where teams of teachers work with school administrators, privatization of public schools that are operated by national chains seems to come only with a top-down approach, and any semblance of a governing board to provide guidance and oversight for the school’s operations is not to be tolerated in Bakke’s world.

In Ohio, the Revised Code treats a charter school as a school district, with its own treasurer, chief administrative officer, and governing board. But state law also allows great latitude regarding the operation and governance of the school, and current law requires that each school have a minimum of five board members, with no other qualifications stated in the law.

With such latitude, it should come as no surprise that the law is silent regarding the place of residency of board members, registration of the members with the secretary of state, citizenship requirements for members of the governing board, let alone how an appointed governing board member is obligated to represent the interests of the school’s stakeholders – students and their families.

In such loose legal construction, charter schools become the creatures of those who “own” them, rather than the public who pays for them and expects resident children to receive an appropriate education. Yet the charter school chains have it both ways. When convenient, the management companies refer to “public charter schools” and “schools of choice,” yet operate them in a manner that doesn’t accept the principle that the public owns the school rather than the corporation that operates the building. To add more complexity to the muddled charter school world, Imagine and some other chains also own some buildings as one way to add emphasis to their usage of the term “our” schools.

This flaw in charter school genetic code will, over time, be its undoing, for the American public is showing signs of increasing impatience with institutions, and like it or not, charter schools will not be immune from this impatience. In the end, charter school chains can’t have it both ways. If they believe the companies “own” these “public” schools, then surely the public will understand that the companies also “own” the boards. When the public fully realizes this state of affairs, the backlash against privatization will begin in earnest.

An owned or bought board is not characteristic of our democratic system. School governing boards were created to provide oversight, set policy, ensure that laws are adhered to, and hire and evaluate the school’s executive and financial officers. If charter school boards are not doing these things, they should be abolished so that the facade of faux governance is exposed. We the public can’t let national chains like Imagine have it both ways.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Privatization

Please Watch Bill Moyers & Co. This Weekend on PBS

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2014 //
44

On Tuesday, I taped an interview with Bill Moyers.

The show will air six times this weekend on PBS stations across the nation.

Bill has become an expert on ALEC, having done important programming (see here) about that shadowy corporate-funded organization that is promoting deregulation of the public and private sectors and encouraging privatization.

Given his interests and mine, we had a great conversation about the strange convergence of ALEC, hedge fund managers, and assorted Republicans and Democrats around a common agenda.

He wanted to “follow the money,” and there were many stories from Ohio, Florida, and elsewhere that reveal the effort to monetize our nation’s public education system without improving it.

He and his crew did something that I have never seen before.

After we finished out taping, we retaped portions of the conversation that needed more detail, clarification, or had any other need for correction.

At one point, I discovered I could not say the phrase “flow freely” without committing a spoonerism. Twice, I tried, and it came out “f-r-o-w-s f-l-e-e-l-y.” I can’t even type the spoonerism because autocorrect keeps changing the words into something else! I think I got it right the third time. I heard long ago that left-handed people (like me) are prone to spoonerisms. If you don’t know what that is, look it up. It has to do with transposing the beginning sounds of two adjoining words.

Anyway, I loved talking to him. We are both Texans of the same generation. We share a worldview about the importance of civic obligation. We both detest the way that capital is invading every part of our lives and finding ways to make a buck for a very few.

 

 

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Personal, Privatization

Sir Michael Barber Unveils Stale Ideas for Massachusetts for Bargain Basement Price of $250,000

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2014 //
11

EduShyster has outdone herself with this brilliant post.

 

It is the story of how the business leaders of Massachusetts got hornswoggled by some fellow named (Sir) Michael Barber, who works for Pearson and does big thinking for them. [NB: As an American, I don’t recognize titles other than Mr., Miss, Mrs, and Dr.]

 

You know, of course, that Massachusetts made a “grand bargain” between its political leaders and its educators in 1993: a huge new infusion of funding in exchange for new standards and state tests, with equitable funding across the state and (later) a new investment in early childhood education. Massachusetts has long been recognized as the top-scoring state on NAEP.

 

Last week, Secretary Duncan visited Massachusetts to sound the alarm. These top-scoring kids are falling behind the global competition. That is a sign that there is trouble ahead and that “reform” is at your doorstep to tear apart everything that was carefully built over 20 years.

 

Then the business community conducted a poll among themselves and much to everyone’s surprise, their biggest complaint was that students spend too much time on testing.

 

Leave that sour note alone and turn to the main act: the business community commissioned a report from (Sir) Michael Barber of Pearson, who told them what Massachusetts must do to achieve real excellence. Well, you can only guess. A heavy does of privatization and–no surprise–more reliance on standardized testing. He is a numbers guy. If you read the linked article, you will see that a leading British columnist referred to him as “a control freak’s control freak.” His “bold” and “transformative” vision sounds as if it might have been written by Arne Duncan’s speechwriter, except for the part that was plagiarized from an article in the Boston Globe. As EduShyster notes, what did you expect from the great (Sir) Michael Barber for a measly $250,000? Original thinking? Real research? As we say in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboutit!

 

Spoiler alert!!! Here is EduShyster’s brilliant ending:

 

One hundred and twenty pages later, we are confronted with a fiercely urgent question: will anything come of the bold report and its assorted unleashings? In a word, no. Here’s the Boston Globe’s James Vaznis:

“Business leaders may have a tough time selling their agenda to school leaders, teachers, and parents who resent corporate interests influencing the direction of public education. They fear schools will evolve into factories focused solely on producing workers and the joy of learning will be lost — a situation they say is already unfolding at many schools trying to boost test scores to avoid government sanctions.”

Now why couldn’t I have written that?

 

Thank you, EduShyster!

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Massachusetts, Privatization, Testing

Jeff Bryant: The New Extremist Attack on Democracy

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2014 //
23

Jeff Bryant here
describes the rise of an anti-democratic worldview that
threatens not only public education but democracy itself.

 

Under the fraudulent guise of “education reform,” extremists seek to
destroy public education and turn it over to private entrepreneurs.
They trust the marketplace, not the public. They are true believers
in the doctrines of free-market economist Milton Friedman, not
those of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Horace Mann.

 

He quotes an Ohio legislator who says that public schools–which are a
cornerstone of our democracy–are “socialist.” If so, then we have
been a “socialist” nation for over 150 years. At least 90% of our
population was educated in those “socialist” schools and created
the greatest, most powerful nation in the world.

 

Then he quotes the founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings, who longs to see an end to
locally elected school boards, to be replaced by privately managed
charters. Democracy, Hastings seems to think, is too inefficient,
too messy. Are there enough billionaires like Hastings to run the
nation’s schools? Why do these people have such contempt for
democracy? Why do they like to replace democratic control with
mayoral control, governor control, anything but elected school
boards? Several districts in New Jersey have been under state
control for 20 years, with no results. Mayoral control has done
nothing for Cleveland or Chicago other than to increase
undemocratic decision making.

 

Bryant concludes: “The idea of democratic governance of schools as a principal means for ensuring
the quality of schools has never worked perfectly for sure. “It’s
true that too few people bother to vote in school board elections.
The electoral system is often prone to manipulation from powerful
individuals and self-interested groups. Elected boards are often
overly contentious to the point of dysfunction. And the country’s
history is replete with examples of local boards that perpetuated
widespread mistreatment of minorities to the point where outside
intervention was necessary. “But where else has democratic
governance achieved perfection? There are democratic solutions to
these problems: Do more to increase voter education and turnout,
limit the influence of money and factional interests, and ensure
checks and balances from outside authorities that are also
democratically elected. “If we want to give ordinary people more of
a voice in determining the education destinies of their children
and their communities, the solution is more democracy, not
less.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, New Orleans, New York City, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Vouchers

Ohio: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2014 //
23

A reader in Ohio writes:   This is one
of the people who is making law on public schools in
Ohio: “Powell legislator stirs controversy
over views on public schools Two weeks after
calling public education “socialism” and saying it should be
privatized, state Rep. Andrew Brenner said of those criticizing him
with vulgarities: “I’m guessing those people had a public
education.” The Powell Republican and vice chairman of the House
Education Committee wrote another column this week on his wife’s
website, Brenner Brief News, criticizing those who took issue with
his previous column.” He’s the new vice-chair
on the education committee. His goal is to get rid of our 150 year
old system of public schools, because it’s “socialism”.
When he’s called on it, he responds by attacking every
person in the state who attended public schools, which of course is
the vast majority of people in the state. You
really can’t make this stuff up. It’s like open season on public
ed.

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization, Vouchers

Breaking News: Tennessee State Senate Guts Local Control

By dianeravitch
March 21, 2014 //
23

The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill based on ALEC model legislation to minimize local control.

ALEC is more dedicated to privatization and to the destruction of public sector agencies than to local control.

ALEC’s agenda is not conservative; it is extremist.

Under this bill, those who wish to open a privately managed charter school may apply to a state authorizing board if the local board turns them down.

This guts local control.

The legislation applies only to 5 of the state’s 95 districts, because the charters want to expand in the urban districts, especially Memphis and Nashville.

The bill is payback against the Metro Nashville school board, which on four occasions turned down the controversial Great Hearts Academy, which wanted to open in an affluent section of Nashville with no transportation plans for children from other neighborhoods. The board rejected their proposal because it would not serve the city’s neediest children.

State Commissioner Kevin Huffman–whose only experience as an educator was his two years in TFA–fined the Nashville district $3.4 million for rejecting Great Hearts.

Great Hearts has been criticized in Arizona, where it is based, for its lack of diversity, and for conflicts of interest on its board. 

According to research by the Arizona Republic:

The 15 schools under the non-profit Great Hearts Academies offer a college-preparatory curriculum that stresses classic literature. That means students get an intensive reading regimen.

To supply the books, the schools have been making regular purchases for at least the last three years from a Tempe-based textbook company called Educational Sales Co. Daniel Sauer, the company’s president and CEO and a shareholder, is also an unpaid officer of the Great Hearts Academies non-profit.

Since July 2009, the schools have made $987,995 in purchases from the company.

Great Hearts also gives parents the option of buying books directly from the company. Six of the Great Hearts school websites feature links only to Educational Sales’ website for parents who want to buy a second set of books for use at home.

Great Hearts CEO Dan Scoggin said he doesn’t believe there is a conflict of interest because Great Hearts has no mandates on where its schools buy books. Many Great Hearts schools use several vendors based on pricing, service and availability, he said.

Great Hearts schools are exempt from state purchasing laws. Scoggin said Great Hearts doesn’t have a contract with Educational Sales because schools have choices on where they make textbook purchases.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/20121016insiders-benefiting-charter-deals.html#ixzz2wcWACd5J

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Privatization, Tennessee

Bill McDiarmid: North Carolina’s Legislature Is Destroying Public Education

By dianeravitch
March 20, 2014 //
8

Only days before Arne Duncan hailed North Carolina as one of the stars of the Race to the Top, Bill McDiarmid, dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, warned that public education was in dire peril in the state. 

Although North Carolina was once renowned as the most forward-looking state in the south, known for fundings its schools and for promoting statewide early childhood education under previous governors, the current governor and legislature seem determined to obliterate the common schools of North Carolina. The mantra of the legislature–echoing Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and the rest of the false reformers, is that “our schools are broken.”

Their solution: charters and vouchers; Teach for America; flunking third graders who don’t pass a reading test, and other punitive actions. At the same time, they enacted generous corporate tax breaks. The shift of public funds away from public schools to the private sector will exacerbate racial segregation. When the radical extremists took control of the legislature, they made sure to gerrymander their own districts to maintain a majority.

McDiarmid writes:

Concerns about the direction of education in the state are widely shared. Researchers at UNC-Wilmington recently conducted a poll of 2,350 state residents. They found that 94 percent of the respondents believe that education is now headed in the wrong direction in the state. Large majorities disagreed with recent policy decisions: 85 percent disapprove of vouchers for students to attend private schools; 81 percent believe that the state should provide scholarships to talented high school students to attract them to teaching via the Teaching Fellows Program; 96 percent disagree with cutting the salary incentive for teachers to pursue master’s degrees; and 75 percent disagree with eliminating tenure. In sum, probably a very significant majority of North Carolinians disagrees with the current policy direction.

The bad news for those concerned about where we are headed is that a number of key folks in the General Assembly are in “safe seats.” This tends to make legislators less responsive to the concerns of the public. These lawmakers are highly unlikely to be turned out this fall — or perhaps for several elections to come. In 2010, the Republican majority in the Legislature controlled redistricting. They were able to create for themselves election districts that virtually ensured their re-elections and the dominance of their party throughout the decade. Certainly, a number of these folks in the majority are open to conversation and debate about educational policy and attend to non-partisan research. Some who hold key leadership posts appear committed, however, to an agenda intent on replacing public schools with private schools.

Equally discouraging are the changes to the tax code. The majority passed legislation rolling back corporate and individual taxes. A flat 5.8 percent tax on incomes replaced the almost century-old graduated tax schedule. The cost to the state of these changes? Over $1 billion annually. At this rate, North Carolina is well on its way to meeting Grover Norquist’s goal of shrinking the size of government to “where it can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” As the largest expenditure category in the state budget, education is already fighting for air.

Absent from much of the debate about the move toward privatization is attention to the role of public schooling in a democratic society. Our schools trace their origins back to 19th century public school advocates. Recognizing that an educated citizenry is essential to maintaining a democracy, they believed that mixing of children from all social classes in free “common schools” would lead to a stronger sense of shared civic purpose.

Due to persistent residential segregation, North Carolina failed to achieve the goal of schools where all our children – regardless of social class, race, or family circumstances – learn together. Yet, for many children, school remains the one place where they rub shoulders with others who differ from themselves socially, linguistically, and culturally. Like it or not, they must learn to get along with these “others” – arguably a critical attitude in a diverse democratic society such as ours.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, North Carolina, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Peter Greene: Duncan Hails North Carolina for Improving Teachers (Really)

By dianeravitch
March 20, 2014 //
10

Peter Greene noticed in his scan of reports from Arne Duncan that Duncan singled out the super stars of his Race to the Top.

Most surprising of all was that North Carolina won a gold star for improving the teaching profession.

To call this startling is an understatement.

Don’t take my word for it: Read what Duke University Professor Helen Ladd and former New York Times education editor Edward Fiske wrote about the appalling attacks on teachers and on public education in recent years in North Carolina.

Teachers are bailing out of North Carolina because salaries are so low and have not increased since 2008.

The legislature has passed law after law stripping teachers of any and all rights and privileges.

Teachers can no longer get a raise for earning an advanced degree (just shows you what the legislature thinks of education).

The legislature killed off its successful North Carolina Teaching Fellows, which produced well-prepared teachers who made a career of teaching, yet found $5-6 million to bring in Teach for America, guaranteed not to stay in teaching.

North Carolina has one of the worst climates for teachers in the United States, and it has gotten progressively worse over the past three years since hard-right Republicans took control of the legislature and the governorship.

What exactly did Arne find admirable about teaching conditions in North Carolina?

Was he misinformed or does he approve of the war against teachers by the state’s extremists in the legislature and its governor?

The bottom line is that Race to the Top was a waste of $5 billion that might have been used for the arts, for reducing class sizes in needy schools, for opening health clinics, for doing what was actually needed by students and teachers and communities. It could have been a national competition to reward the districts that produced actionable plans for racial integration. Instead, it piled on more testing, demoralized teachers and principals, added tons of paperwork, and rewarded consultants, entrepreneurs, and snake-oil salesmen.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, North Carolina, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teachers and Teaching

Chicago Teachers Union Fights “Deformers” and “Pension Thieves” in Elections

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
11

 

The Chicago Teachers Union is getting politically active on behalf of public education and teachers. It supported candidates who oppose school closings and privatization via charters. Note the lessons: The last one is: “This ain’t Wisconsin.”

 

NEWS RELEASE

IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   CONTACT:   Stephanie Gadlin

March 19, 2014                                                                                                                            312-329-6250

 

 

LESSONS LEARNED IN PRIMARY 2014

Incumbents seeking to erode retirement security in Chicago had better beware

 

CHICAGO – Throughout this primary season, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has been a strong and vocal advocate for voters on the South and West Sides of Chicago—many of whom have been most impacted by the foolishness of education deformers and pension thieves. It is time to stand up to the predatory corporate and political interests that seek to threaten the economic security of thousands of workers. Incumbents seeking to steal our retirement security, beware.

“The Chicago Teachers Union expressed people power this electoral cycle,” said CTU President Karen Lewis.  “We were most successful in creating a platform of educational justice and retirement security that was expressed by our endorsed candidates.  Representative-elect Will Guzzardi amplified our calls for an elected, representative school board, a moratorium on school closings and an end to charter proliferation.

“With our continued support and his ability to turn the issues we’ve long championed into a successful political campaign, he was able to take down the Berrios machine and strike a blow to the top-down political tradition of the Northwest Side,” she said.

While the 26th District race remains contested, it is clear that voters on the South Side have soundly rejected State Rep. Christian “Crown” Mitchell’s anti-working families’ platform. This contest, more than any other this Primary season, exposes the racial and economic fault lines for 2015.

School closings, the campaign for an elected, representative school board and retirement security are important issues that matter well beyond downtown Chicago. It is also clear that education deformers, such as Democrats for Education Reform, Stand For Children, Lester Crown and the We Mean Business PAC will continue to spend millions of dollars to influence Illinois public policy and purchase the loyalty of politicians too compromised to stand up for their constituents.

The only way an incumbent like Mitchell was able to—possibly—squeak by a relatively unknown community leader like Jay Travis was by pandering to predominantly white wards through scare tactics and misinformation about imaginary tax increases. Travis, on the other hand, was able to secure the support of working families that want well-resourced neighborhood schools, retirement security and the right to self-determination thru an elected representative school board. It is also telling that despite having virtually no support beyond parents, students and working class people such as teachers, social workers, secretaries, lunchroom workers, janitors, firefighters, police officers and hospital workers, Travis showed impressive gains against a well-financed incumbent backed by the mayor, the Illinois Speaker of the House, the Cook County Board President, two U.S. congressmen, various aldermen, preachers and other paid political operatives.

Tuesday was only Round One in the 26th District. The die has been cast and the electorate has been energized. The CTU will continue to be dogmatic, clear and protective of publicly funded public education and retirement security. Because of our collective effort, Rep. Christian “Crown” Mitchell has been exposed as a puppet of the oligarchy who gave him nearly a half-million dollars in 2012 and a million dollars in 2014 to secure his pension vote. He continues to accept donations from a group that advocates for the shuttering of neighborhood schools and uses those funds to benefit charter operations and the businesses they run.

LESSONS LEARNED

  • ·         LESSON ONE: The CTU also provided organizers and financial resources that helped secure the Will Guzzardi victory over Toni Berrios in the 39th Legislative District. The CTU’s campaigns echoed strongly in Guzzardi’s winning education platform of saving neighborhood schools and stopping pension theft. It has been more than a decade since a union-supported candidate unseated an incumbent in a primary.

 

  • ·         LESSON TWO: While pollsters and key influencers were predicting a Christian ‘Crown’ Mitchell 10-point–to 12-point blowout in the 26th Legislative District, CTU’s candidate Jay Travis trounced the incumbent in in the 4th Ward (where his political sponsors have the most influence) and she is within just over 400 votes of victory—this despite widespread incidents of intimidation and interference with the democratic process.

 

  • ·         LESSON THREE: The CTU sent a clear message: We will not sit by idly while threats are made to steal the retirement security of our members. The Union has turned nearly 30,000 members into a vast political army that is prepared to educate the public, work precincts, donate money and go to the polls on Election Day.

 

  • ·         LESSON FOUR: There is nothing dead about organized labor. With pundits and pollsters projecting a magnificent landslide for Republican charter booster Bruce Rauner, Kirk Dillard—backed by labor—came within two points of defeating him for the nomination. His near-loss shows that Rauner is an out-of-touch, right-wing billionaire who would put the wealthy, corporations and his special interest buddies ahead of the priorities of Illinois families—job creation and a stronger middle class.

 

  • ·         LESSON FIVE: The CTU extended its influence to Champaign, Illinois, where Carol Ammons has claimed victory in the 103rd Legislative District. Ammons will make equitable access to public education and pension protection pillars of her race in the fall against Republican Kristin Williamson of Urbana. She is also a strong supporter of Fair Tax and drug policy reform.

 

  • ·         LESSON SIX: Parents, teachers and voters in the 26th Ward soundly rejected a massive effort by the school district to convert Ames Middle School into an unnecessary military academy. This victory happened despite tactics used by Ald. Roberto Maldonado, which included mailings, persistent robo-calls, and having students dressed as Marines canvass door to door.

 

  • ·         LESSON SEVEN: The CTU gained valuable field experience, involved hundreds of members in field operations, increased the number of members donating political contributions, and intends to use these increased capacities in future contests. Through the Chicagoans for Economic Security PAC, working families will organize, pool their resources and actively participate in campaigns to defeat the status quo.

 

  • ·         LESSON EIGHT: This ain’t Wisconsin.

 

###

The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at www.ctunet.com.

SG:oteg-743-tr

 

Categories Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Privatization, Unions

Jeff Bryant: Why Democrats Erred by Embracing the GOP Agenda

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
54

Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network writes in Salon that voters are increasingly disenchanted with the bipartisan Bush-Obama education policies of high-stakes testing, Common Core, and privatization.

He points out that the attacks on public education are not playing well at all in the political arena. The overwhelming majority of parents are very happy with their local public schools and respect their teachers. The public is beginning to see through the lies they have been told about their schools. So much of the rhetoric of the “reformers” sounds appealing and benign, if not downright inspirational, but it ends up as nonstop testing, the closing of local public schools, merit pay, union-busting, the enrichment of multinational corporations, and standardization.

Bryant predicts that Democrats will suffer at the polls for their slavish espousal of hard-right GOP doctrine.

He writes:

“The only overriding constants? People generally like their local schools, trust their children’s teachers and think public school and teachers should get more money. Wonder when a politician will back that!

“Many observers, including journalists at The Wall Street Journal, have accurately surmised that the American public is currently deeply divided on education policy. But that analysis barely scratches the surface.

“Go much deeper and you find that the “new liberal consensus” that Adam Serwer wrote about in Mother Jones, which propelled Obama into a second term, believes in funding the nation’s public schools but has little to no allegiance to Obama’s education reform policies.

“Outside of the elite circles of the Beltway and the very rich, who continue to be the main proponents of these education policies, it is getting harder and harder to discern who exactly is the constituency being served by the reform agenda.

“Most Americans do not see any evidence that punitive measures aimed at their local schools are in any way beneficial to their children and grandchildren. In fact, there’s some reasonable doubt whether the president himself understands it.

So is Arne Duncan making education policy on his own? Or is the policy agenda of the Obama administration indistinguishable from that of rightwing Republicans like Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Mike Pence, and Tom Corbett?

Categories Democrats, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Race to the Top, Testing, Unions, Vouchers
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